McHugh grew up in Williston Park on Long Island and played basketball and soccer at Herricks High School.

The show consisted of a four-person panel (host McHugh, handicapper Rob DeAngelis, comedian Reese Waters, and former Playboy model Jenn Sterger) which discussed, often with heavy satire, sports-related topics popular that day and aired on Versus.

In the fall, he continued to host NBC's college football studio show alongside Doug Flutie and newcomer Hines Ward.

In November 2012, McHugh hosted NBCSN’s Carrier Classic Countdown, live from the deck of the USS Bataan, as well as pre-game, halftime and post-game coverage.

Shortly before Super Bowl LII, it was announced that McHugh would join Dan Patrick as a studio co-host for the game, filling in for Mike Tirico as the latter prepared to anchor the 2018 Winter Olympics, set to open a few days later.

McHugh joined Kenny Albert, Brendan Burke, Eddie Olczyk, Keith Jones, Anson Carter, and John Forslund, who all jumped from NBC to Turner after the former lost the NHL rights to the latter.

[6] In 2023, McHugh was named to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass broadcast team, as the lead host of their whiparound studio coverage.